The Off Topic Topic

[Valmy]

 

[Zanza]

Another category of evil shops, though these appear in mainstream shopping places as well as downmarket ones, are the rent-to-buy places. You rent, for example, a £300 washing machine and pay £5 a week for it for 3 years; after the three yaers it is yours.

I get how you can finance a washing machine, kitchen appliances or a car if you can't pay upfront. These are more or less necessary for life. But all those offers to finance a 2000 Euro TV or some other crap are mainly a trap for the poor. And those offers are everywhere these days...

[Zanza]

In Germany, you will have Shisha bars in these streets as well...

[Admiral Yi]

In Germany, you will have Shisha bars in these streets as well...

Was is das?

[Richard Hakluyt]

Middle-eastern style smoking joints; we have a few here in my town too.

[Richard Hakluyt]

Here is a typical offering from one of the shops I'm talking about :

https://www.brighthouse.co.uk/laptops/apple-133-128-gb-macbook-air-silver-mpapmcair?utm_source=dbm&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=BAU_July_Sept_RTG

A cursory search finds these available for £749. Note the extortionate "bright care" and insurance that can also be purchased 

[Admiral Yi]

Middle-eastern style smoking joints; we have a few here in my town too.

Ah, I guess what we call hookah bars.

[Tamas]

Now the rooms are all empty down at Frankie's joint
And the highway she's deserted clear down to Breaker's Point
There's a lot of people leaving town now
leaving their friends, their homes
At night they walk that dark and dusty highway all alone

Well Papa go to bed now, it's getting late
Nothing we can say can change anything now
Because there's just different people coming down here now and they see things in different ways
And soon everything we've known will just be swept away

[mongers]

Now the rooms are all empty down at Frankie's joint
And the highway she's deserted clear down to Breaker's Point
There's a lot of people leaving town now
leaving their friends, their homes
At night they walk that dark and dusty highway all alone

Well Papa go to bed now, it's getting late
Nothing we can say can change anything now
Because there's just different people coming down here now and they see things in different ways
And soon everything we've known will just be swept away

Madonna?

[Josquius]

Here is a typical offering from one of the shops I'm talking about :

https://www.brighthouse.co.uk/laptops/apple-133-128-gb-macbook-air-silver-mpapmcair?utm_source=dbm&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=BAU_July_Sept_RTG

A cursory search finds these available for £749. Note the extortionate "bright care" and insurance that can also be purchased 

Wallsend has exactly that shop. I didn't realise it was one of those.

For many years my nanna rented her TV. Not even rent to buy, just rented. God knows how much she paid. She could have long since bought several. Yet she kept renting the same old model.

[Barrister]

A lot of the businesses mentioned here as being typical for poor areas are probably running illegal businesses.  Your payday loan store in probably charging illegal interest rates.  Your shisha bar is probably selling tobacco without paying the taxes on it.  Another favourite of mine, the head shop or dispensary, where you can buy bongs and other marijuana accessories, is probably also selling marijuana.

[Josquius]

A lot of the businesses mentioned here as being typical for poor areas are probably running illegal businesses.  Your payday loan store in probably charging illegal interest rates.  Your shisha bar is probably selling tobacco without paying the taxes on it. 

I've definitely heard this is a big reason why you get beauty parlours even in crappy small villages. It's the local gangster who has set up his wife with it to keep her occupied and launder cash.

Another favourite of mine, the head shop or dispensary, where you can buy bongs and other marijuana accessories, is probably also selling marijuana.

You've encountered this?
As that seems way too obvious. Surely that's the last place you should be selling weed?

[Admiral Yi]

Doesn't fit with my experience of head shops.

[mongers]

Doesn't fit with my experience of head shops.

Yeah it'll be the hydroponics shop selling drugs.

[HVC]

Doesn't fit with my experience of head shops.

My corner store sells a bunch of paraphernalia*, but no drugs as far as a I know.


*I learned that you can buy little bundles (?)  of steel wool for your crack pipe last week.